Spice of Life, Blackheath

This could be a perfect local Indian restaurant. Spice of Life is an unassuming looking place on Lee High Road but gets understandably packed most nights of the week. 

The interior has quite the 80s flavour, from the carpets to the booths - the napkins are even in those cool fan shapes. As we sat down we were descended upon by chutneys and papads and dutifully tried to determine which chutney would blow our heads off, a bit of "Indian Roulette" if you will. Pleasingly none of them were too vicious and it was a perfect start to the meal.

Now, the rest of the food. Allow me to assist you if you're in here from a Thursday to a Sunday. You'll be given a menu, by all means give it a scan. Take a look. Have a read. Then, put it down, wait for the owner, Moody to come on over and tell you what's on their special offer instead. It's £10pp for a starter, main dish and side dish with rice or bread. Thankfully I was with a regular who informed me that this was the drill. We each ordered something different from the choices on the special menu and split it fiddy fiddy. 
Here's what we got:

This is the onion bhaji, pretty standard but nice and crispy - not like those crap ones that are all batter and taste like sponges. And it came with a nice dollop of imli. On the right is some tandoori chicken wing nice and charred, seems to have been cooked in a proper tandoor. 

Curry everyone! The left is a beef curry, a little odd for an Indian place but the beef was so tender and soft we didn't ask any questions. On the right is a spicy prawn curry - sadly with weeny prawns instead of nice huge ones but the sauces itself they were both cooked in were great. 
  
I've been sick of visiting Indian restaurants in the area and being given curries full of cream (korma), chillies (vindaloo) or heinz tomato soup (tikka masala), often without even a whiff of real spice. Spice of Life does things properly though - you could both see and taste the cooking that went into the dishes.

amazing

This was easily enough rice for two people but we also got a huge bit of naan bread that I didn't manage to get a photo of as we pretty much ripped it up as soon as it was put in front of us.

The sides were good, on the left is some Aloo Saag, which was lovely and soft, the right is some cooked swede in cumin. That's the great thing about the Special menu, though choices are fairly limited, it changes frequently and is often more experimental than your bog standard curry house.
  
With pretty decent specials also running on their drinks (we shared a nice bottle of red for a tenner) you chumps have no excuse to not go. There I said it. Not sure about the stuff on the rest of the menu is like but I am confident I shall be returning for a CHA-party or two so I will keep you most dutifully informed!
 
Spice of Life
260 Lee High Road
Lewisham
London
SE13 5PL
  
Tel. 0208 244 4770
  
Opening Times: 
Mon: 18:00 - 22:00
Tues: Closed
Wed-Thurs: 18:00 - 23:00
Fri-Sat: 18:00 - 23:30
Sun: 18:00 - 23:00